Building on the social housing sector’s track record for leading innovation, SFHA has announced an opportunity for a path-finding social housing provider to access a package of financial and design support to help deliver an innovative social housing development that maximises the benefits of the vegetated land and water within and around housing sites.

This ‘green infrastructure’ can provide space to socialise, to play, to grow food and to connect with nature. Green infrastructure can also provide a range of other functions that support successful places such as water management and managing the impacts of pollution.

The SFHA is looking to partner with a housing association or local authority housing provider that is intending to commission design contracts for social housing in the next 12 months. If you have a site that’s likely to include some significant areas of shared open space and are yet to appoint a team to design the layout, then they’d love to hear from you.

Up to £60,000 of funding will be available to enable the appointment of design consultants with a track record of working closely with clients, communities and other stakeholders to deliver high quality design that maximizes the benefits of green infrastructure. The project team will work with the chosen housing partner to set out a brief for the design consultants and a process for appointing them.

The objective is to demonstrate that the resulting designs will be a sound investment for the social housing provider and provide design and process lessons that can be applied to other projects. The type of support will be appropriate to the nature and scale of the development and the stage the project has reached, but will focus on maximizing the contribution that green infrastructure can make to a successful place.

To find out more about the funding and support partnership, download a Call for Interest Document. The deadline for submissions is February 15.